Stratford Hotel At 414 Fannin St.

[TheGlen]

I managed to inherit the safe from the Stratford Hotel that was at 414 Fannin.  The safe has marking of the hotel all over it and I'm digging up any information about the hotel so I can sell it.  It's nice and historic, but I don't have any use for a 4 ton safe the size of a refrigerator.  I was able to find out the hotel was built in 1912, torn down approximately in the 1950's but that isn't verified.  Trying to find any pictures, history or anything that can put a story behind this safe.  The previous owner bought it when the hotel went out of business.  They didn't want to take it down the stairs to they put a bunch of mattresses outside and pushed it out of the 3rd story window.  It's fully functional, but the thing required a frontloader with men standing on the back for ballast or it would tip over. 

[The Pragmatist]

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_1381

 

http://www.newspapers.com/clip/3136039/geo_h_lewis_still_managing_the/

 

http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/images/id/4432 (you can see it's signage along the street here)

 

I just quickly Googled it because I was curious.

Edited September 24, 2015 by The Pragmatist

[The Pragmatist]

http://www.newspapers.com/clip/3108589/hotel_stratford_ad_in_nov_1915_with/

 

http://www.newspapers.com/clip/3108544/ad_for_stratford_hotel_geo_h_lewis/

[TheGlen]

Had seen the ads, not the pictures.  Any history behind this place?

[trymahjong]

Who was the Stratford Hotel named after? There is a Stratford street in Avondale.

[TheGlen]

There were a series of hotels in Houston named for different parts of London, Stratford was one of them.

[brucesw]

For a time the Stratford was one of the hotels controlled by W. Albert Lee, a commercial real estate broker who came to control 8 hotels in Houston and a resort in the hill country.

 

In 1948 Lee got into broadcasting, launching KLEE, 610 AM, the station that is now KILT. On New Year's Day 1949 he launched KLEE-TV, Channel 2, Houston's first TV station, now known as KPRC-TV. He died in late 1951.

 

There is a Master's Thesis from UT on Lee; a copy is available at the Metropolitan Research Center at the Central Library.  You could access this there.  I was only interested in a little of his early biography and his broadcasting related activities but I think --- I'm not absolutely sure --- there was more in the thesis about his hotel operations. This might fill in a few details of the history of the Stratford.

 

Here is my brief bio of Lee on my radio history blog which names some of the other hotels he controlled.  I cite the source at the bottom so you will know exactly what to look for.

 

Edited September 25, 2015 by brucesw

[Subdude]

Picture:

[sevfiv]

Here's an ad from the 1926 city directory:

 

 

[trymahjong]

There were a series of hotels in Houston named for different parts of London, Stratford was one of them.

I wonder what year for those hotels named after different parts of London?

There was a naming contest 1907 for the development ultimately named Avondale---6 people came up with that name and shared the $25 prize. Now I understand about that street name - what better name than Stratford street in AVONdale?

[matty1979]

So the former manager became a funeral director?